Make Money: Main Street

Rose City Renaissance

Head Shot Editor’s Note: People are Connecticut’s most valuable assets. Cities and history intertwine to make each place different and worth visiting. Three years ago, dedicated Norwich citizens came together to take control of their future and the future of their city that they love. Working with the principals of the Connecticut Main Street Program, the founders of what would become Rose City Renaissance (RCR) — The Norwich Main Street Program — and they made a commitment to lead a preservation-based, community-driven urban revitalization effort to restore the historic Norwich downtown and waterfront into a thriving center of community life. Meet their director.

Pride and Commitment Drive the Engine of Growth in Downtown Norwich

By Richard Bryan Kramer, Esq.
Executive Director
Rose City Renaissance
The Norwich Main Street Program

Main Street As dawn’s first light begins to reflect off the Mohegan Sun tower just south of its historic waterfront, Norwich comes to life again. The streets of the downtown district are lined with structures most of which reflect the many periods of “city” architecture prior to World War II, not unlike an urban version of Mystic Seaport not so far away.

The historic nature of these buildings belie a most important point - Norwich is a city on the move; a city with a mission. Up and down Main Street is a level of activity and interest that has sustained itself and grown for more than two years.

It is easy to focus on the large projects - the Mashantucket-Pequot’s Mercantile Exchange Building; the ornately detailed restoration of the Wauregan Hotel to its appearance at the height of its popularity; the shell of the old Otis Library, upon which will be built a state-of-the-art new library designed to meet the information, education and entertainment needs of the community as we move through the 21st century.

The projects to note, however, are the multitude of mid-sized and small projects happening everywhere. Housing is returning to the downtown in a variety of forms. The LaRue and Alice building in the center of Main Street are rental units catering to many of the workers who use the nearby transportation center to commute to their places of employment. Flanking Broadway, near its intersection with Main, the Wauregan and Fairhaven are nearing complete renovations. When they go online, more than 100 families will make use of reasonably priced workforce housing. In nearby Franklin Square, a new building owner is contemplating creating housing units out of former office space.

The face of Main Street is changing due to the numerous projects that have incorporated significant façade work. While the Wauregan may be the largest and most detailed of the downtown façade projects, the work done on the Puritan Building at 130 Main Street by the Capano family is significant in that they are in the process of returning a boarded up eyesore to an attractive and performing use, using only private funds. The project will feature a new bistro on the street level, offices on the second floor and housing on the third. At the western gateway to downtown in Washington Square, the Flatiron Building is being restored to its former glory.

New and innovative architectural products are making exterior work rewarding and affordable; but downtown, it’s what’s happening inside the buildings that is just as important. Just a few months ago, Harish Kalra was the proprietor of a retail store not more than 15 by 50 square. From the moment he opened this small convenience store, Mr. Kalra saw himself as an entrepreneur who would soon be investing the savings from his casino job into larger retail ventures in an improving Norwich. Today, he is on his way, relocated to much larger space nearby and better meeting the needs of his growing customer base.

Like Mr. Kalra, Audrin Desardouin of A-D Men’s Shop worked at the casinos, but now focuses on his clothing shop. A skilled tailor, he attracts businessmen from throughout the region to his store where they can purchase leading labels at wonderful prices.

Paradise Bar and Grill, operated by the Contreras family in the beautifully restored art deco Beit Brothers building, is a local restaurant meeting the needs of a growing Peruvian and South American population while attracting the local residents, whose “crossover” support for this delicious cuisine grows regularly.

Main Street With numerous successful Norwich renovations on her resume, Janny Lam now takes on the historic Chelsea Landing. This building is the last structural tie Norwich has to its significant nautical history. Ms. Lam demonstrates her commitment to Norwich through continual reinvestment in projects in and around downtown.

This diversity is the growing, compelling story of this city successfully making its way back. Norwich, the Rose City, is very much at the heart of the new American dream for a new generation of immigrants. The stories of Kalra and Desardouin and Lam are just as interesting as those of Leone’s Drug Store, Levy’s Deli, and Harrigan’s Furniture just a few generations back.

This new wave of immigrants is rebuilding an old city first built nearly three hundred years ago and then rebuilt with each succeeding wave of newcomers and new economies. Like the English and Italian and Jewish immigrants before them, today’s recent arrivals in Norwich are bringing our community together around the traditional civic gathering place — a dynamic and vibrant downtown. Commingling cultures and cuisine and contacts, these entrepreneurs are establishing a new ethos of urban mercantilism that will encourage other specialty shops to look once again downtown. It has already begun. In recent months, Sweet Tooth, a candy boutique, opened its doors in Franklin Square. City Perk relocated from a small space downtown to a less than active art gallery, breathing new life into two businesses. Caeser’s Diablo is about to open a California-style deli. Adam Arpin, the owner of Dillan’s, itself a new restaurant to the Norwich scene less than two years ago, has opened Kaydance at the marina. Taking over a “seasonal” restaurant, Arpin is looking at innovative ways to extend the season.

As it looks to its future, Norwich is also looking at ways to incorporate its past. The historical society is actively exploring museum space at the Buckingham. The Norwich Heritage Discovery Center is planning to serve as the gateway to Norwich and the entire region, Connecticut’s well-known “Last Green Valley.” The Discovery Center will serve those looking for history, outdoor recreation, arts, crafts, shopping and antiques. Plans for an exciting project that will recognize the people and events of the period between the end of the Revolutionary War and the adoption of the United States Constitution, the era of the Articles of Confederation, are underway to growing support.

Rose City Renaissance (RCR) - the Norwich Main Street program for the past three years - continues in its efforts to support the community as it grows. RCR is a preservation based, community driven urban revitalization effort dedicated to lead the revitalization of downtown Norwich through creativity, cooperation and community partnership. We have published a Guide to Development in Norwich, have recently submitted a proposal for economic incentives to the city council for their consideration, and are hard at work on design guidelines/standards that will ensure that we can preserve our built heritage while meeting the needs of our future.

We have recently restructured ourselves to allow for members, so as to provide the community with a greater opportunity to participate in our organization. We hope to have a community leadership program in place within the next several months. We are working with the Connecticut Community Investment Corporation to develop an entrepreneurial program for local residents. Most importantly, we seek to work with all groups working for the future of Norwich, and get them all to work together. Norwich is back; it is alive and vibrant and becoming relevant as an urban center and an economic engine. We are promoting our opportunities, celebrating our diversity, welcoming our new neighbors from across the globe and sharing in the success of the new American dream.